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Retired two-time MLB All-Star Todd Frazier is still bothered by his lone season with the New York Yankees, when New York lost the 2017 American League Championship Series in seven games to the Houston Astros. Of course, the Astros’ World Series title from that season remains tainted by their illegal sign stealing scandal.
“It sucks man. I’m still pissed off about it if you want the truth. Everybody’s like, ‘Forget about it, don’t worry about it. Let’s just kick it under the rug.’ Time moves on, but you don’t forget,” Frazier said on a December 27 episode of the “Foul Territory” show. “It’s something where somebody could have missed a pitch or that guy wouldn’t have hit that ball or they wouldn’t have scored that run.”
A 2020 investigation from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the Astros illegally used in-stadium video camera systems to relay their opponents’ signs to hitters throughout the 2017 regular season and postseason as well as part of the 2018 season. The Yankees had a 3-2 series lead in the 2017 ALCS before the Astros won both Game 6 and Game 7 in Houston to advance to the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The home team won every game of the 2017 ALCS.
Frazier played most of his 11-year career with the Cincinnati Reds, and hit 40 home runs for the Chicago White Sox in 2016. The White Sox traded Frazier to the Yankees in July 2017, where he reached the League Championship Series for the first and only time of his big-league career.
“That was my only time for me to get a ring. It sucks, man. I’ll be honest. I’m still pissed off about the whole situation,” Frazier said. “There’s all types of ways of finding signs, that’s from second base. The natural ways of doing it. For them to do that, it still stings a little bit. Yeah we’ve moved on from it, but it’s something I’ll never forget.”
Todd Frazier: Astros Cheaters ‘Got Off Scot-Free’
No Astros players were suspended by MLB for their roles in illegal sign stealing. Former Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, manager A.J. Hinch, and bench coach Alex Cora were all suspended for the 2020 season. Carlos Beltrán, who played for the Astros in 2017 and was named in Manfred’s 2017 report, was hired to manage the New York Mets in November 2019 but he parted ways with the club after the results of MLB’s investigation were announced.
“They got off scot-free, if you want the truth,” Frazier said on “Foul Territory.” “I think it’s something where the commissioner should have really thought about what to do to penalize these guys. It would’ve been great to play the Dodgers, that East meets West kind of feel.”
The Astros won the 2017 World Series in seven games over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Luhnow has not worked in MLB since he was fired by the Astros, while Cora currently manages the Boston Red Sox and Hinch has managed the Detroit Tigers since the 2021 season. The Mets hired Beltran to a front office role in February 2023.
Aaron Judge, Brian Cashman Echo Frazier’s Stance
Yankees star slugger Aaron Judge, who finished second in the 2017 American League MVP race to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, said in a February 2020 press conference that “you cheated and you didn’t earn it” regarding the Astros 2017 championship.
“We were probably cheated out of a possibility of making it to the World Series,” Judge said. The outfielder added he “really wasn’t a fan of the punishment; I thought that was a little weak for a player-driven scheme, that no players involved got any punishments.”
Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS was the last game Joe Girardi managed for the Yankees as he was replaced by Aaron Boone in the following offseason. Yankees general manager Brian Chashman believes the Yankees would have made it to the 2017 World Series if not for the Astros stealing their signs in the ALCS.
“The only thing that stopped [us] was something that was so illegal and horrific,” Cashman told The Athletic in March 2022. “So I get offended when I start hearing we haven’t been to the World Series since ’09. Because I’m like, ‘Well, I think we actually did it the right way.’ Pulled it down, brought it back up. Drafted well, traded well, developed well, signed well. The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off.”
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